The Entourage Help Blog

FEATURE FREEZE FOR OFFICE 2008

When a product goes into beta that means its feature list has been set for a while. This is sometimes called “feature freeze” because attention is no longer focused on adding or improving features but rather making sure features work reliably. Some later updates to Office 2008 may introduce minor new features but for now the Office:mac developers are concentrating on getting the beta to RTM (release to manufacturing).

Anything that’s not going to be in Office 2008 can only go into Office “next” (2012?) unless the MacBU is already planning to release a service pack to include the functionality. That’s not unprecedented because it did happen with SP2, a service pack for Office 11.1.0 that added more functionality to its Exchange Server support. But don’t expect Microsoft to include a Photoshop retouching engine in Entourage 12.0.1 if something wasn’t already in 12.0.0.

THE CLOCK IS TICKING FOR OFFICE 2004

Office 2004 is also frozen. It’s now in a maintenance mode but may be occasionally updated to plug security holes or fix major problems introduced by updates to other software. A good example will be the file format compatibility update that will allow Office 2004 folks to share files with Office 2007 for Windows and Office 2008 folks. Note that this will be a functionality update, not a feature update, and follows Microsoft’s support lifecycle for its products.

Office for Mac is positioned in Microsoft as a Consumer product. If you’re a diehard late adopter for software upgrades then mark this date on your calendar: October 13, 2009 (or just schedule it in Entourage with a reminder time). Office 2004 will be five years old and all support for it is scheduled to end. The only thing that will extend this date is a release of Office 2008 later than October. Anyone who insists on postponing an upgrade to Office 2008 assumes the risk of the software not working with newer software such as future versions of Mac OS X, other Office applications or server upgrades. And the only people who will be able to help you will be those who answer questions in online forums. Don’t be angry if they have to say, “It just won’t work. You’re software is too old.”

ASK FOR THOSE NEW FEATURES NOW!

All major feature requests made now but not included in Office 2008 will go into a list of feature requests for Office “next”. That’s a product now four or five years away! But this is the perfect time to be thinking about how you want Office “next” to function for you. Once Office 2008 is RTM (and its developers have taken a nice long vacation after working so hard), the MacBU will start working on the details for the next version. They’ll begin by looking at feedback from consumers.

Cliché time! The squeaky wheel gets the grease! The early bird gets the worm! Those who ask now have a better chance of being heard. Get into the habit of using the Send Feedback mechanism under the Help menu built into every Office for Mac application and tell Microsoft what’s important to you. Also keep in mind that much of the development for Office for Mac comes from Office for Windows. Send feedback on it as well. In less than two years, your newer feature ideas will probably have to wait until the version after Office “next”—and that could be 2016.

Read more about Office:mac 2008 and and the future of Microsoft applications for the Mac platform.